Tokaj Aszú Esszencia, Samuel Tinon (50 cl) - 2007

What kind of wine is this? Fascinating Tokaj, which crosses centuries and borders. Tsars seduced, kings enamoured, queens conquered, but also writers, composers, connoisseurs and gourmets. Hungarians of course. They, the first ones, have always known that Tokaj is not a wine like the others, and all this thanks to the Aszú, picked since the 17th century by the men and women of the region. It is this that fascinated Samuel Tinon and his wife Mathilde. Samuel 'bit into it' in 1991, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1993, Mathilde interviewed him in the middle of the grape harvest when he was director of the first mixed company in the region. He learned very quickly to select the best Aszú, to recognize the different vintages, to communicate with all the actors of the region, from the former cellar masters of the state farms to the local craftsmen and mayors. Then they travelled. And they found each other. In 1998, Samuel bought a house in Olaszliszka, in the heart of the region. At their wedding, a year later, they served their family and friends a Tokaji Aszú 1981. Tokaj never left them. They came back, again and again. By 2000, the vines were bursting with Aszú. Samuel said: "I want these grapes in my cellar". And so it began... From the top of their vineyard, the Hungarian plain unfolds, immense and majestic. It is located in the Határi region and in the municipality...